Speaker 1: The Queen Bee. Two princes left home to seek adventure
Speaker 1: and soon lost their way. Their quiet younger brother went
Speaker 1: after them. They laughed when he found them, but the
Speaker 1: three traveled together. The elder brothers walked ahead and made
Speaker 1: every decision loudly. The youngest followed, noticing what their boots
Speaker 1: nearly crushed. At an anthill, the elder brothers wanted to
Speaker 1: scatter the ants just to watch them run. They had
Speaker 1: already found a stick, when the youngest stepped in front
Speaker 1: of the hill. Leave them, said the youngest. At a lake,
Speaker 1: the brothers wanted to catch two ducks for supper. The
Speaker 1: ducks paddled close to shore, expecting crumbs. The youngest waved
Speaker 1: them away before his brothers could grab them. Let them swim,
Speaker 1: said the youngest. At a beehive, they wanted to light
Speaker 1: a smoky fire and take the honey. Bees moved across
Speaker 1: the entrance, carrying pollen home. The youngest pointed out berries nearby.
Speaker 1: and led his brothers away. We have other food, said
Speaker 1: the youngest. That evening, they reached a silent castle. Stone
Speaker 1: horses stood in the stable. Inside, they found supper.
Speaker 2: Beds, and a gray man who spoke only by pointing.
Speaker 2: The castle looked occupied but held no ordinary movement. A
Speaker 2: kettle steamed. Candles burned. Stone servants stood in the corridors
Speaker 2: with trays in their hands. The gray man opened a
Speaker 2: small door. brought them to a table, and served supper
Speaker 2: without answering a single question. In the morning, the eldest
Speaker 2: prince discovered three instructions carved on a marble tablet. Completing
Speaker 2: them would wake the castle.
Speaker 1: First, someone had to find 1,000 pearls scattered beneath the
Speaker 1: forest moss before sunset. The eldest searched and failed. He
Speaker 1: turned to stone. The second brother tried and also became stone.
Speaker 1: The youngest watched both disappear into still gray figures. He
Speaker 1: searched on his knees, lifting moss, one patch at a time,
Speaker 1: but the pearls looked exactly like drops of light among
Speaker 1: hundreds of white pebbles. The youngest had found only a
Speaker 1: few pearls when the king of the ants arrived, with
Speaker 1: thousands of helpers. Before sunset, every pearl lay in one
Speaker 1: shining pile. The ants formed lines beneath leaves and roots.
Speaker 1: Some carried one pearl together. Others rolled them across the ground.
Speaker 1: The final ant arrived as the last edge of the
Speaker 1: sun touched the trees. The second task was to recover
Speaker 1: a key from the bottom of the lake. The two
Speaker 1: ducks dived and brought it up. One duck surfaced with
Speaker 1: weeds on its head. The other dropped the key at
Speaker 1: the youngest brother's feet and shook water over his shoes.
Speaker 1: The key opened a room where three sleeping princesses looked
Speaker 1: exactly alike. To break the spell, The youngest brother had
Speaker 1: to identify which one had eaten honey rather than sugar
Speaker 1: or syrup. The queen bee flew in. She tasted each
Speaker 1: princess's lips and settled on the youngest. The youngest brother
Speaker 1: could not tell sugar from syrup by sight. The bee
Speaker 1: moved from the first sister to the second, then rested
Speaker 1: on the third sister's mouth. A faint scent of honey
Speaker 1: remained there. The castle woke. Stone people moved again. The
Speaker 1: elder brothers stretched as if they had nearly overslept. The
Speaker 1: stone horses stamped in the stable. Servants completed steps they
Speaker 1: had begun years before. Somewhere deep in the castle, a
Speaker 1: clock struck all the hours it had missed, then gave
Speaker 1: up after twelve. The youngest prince married the princess the
Speaker 1: bee had chosen. His brothers married her sisters. At the wedding,
Speaker 1: nobody disturbed the ants, ducks, or bees. The elder brothers
Speaker 1: did not need that lesson explained twice. The End As always,
Speaker 1: visit us at ReadTheTale.com for all your favorite tales and stories.